[sims] Solus 3 - Why bother for clients?

[matt40k]

I dont think its very good that you need to rely on other software to patch and update

 

Umm… ~Points to Sophos~

 

SIMS could be made so much less painful by the latest client also supporting the last version. That way machines can be updated to 100% before the server, the end users wouldn't even notice.

 

That’s actually a really good idea.

 

When was the last time Capita spoke to Microsoft, 1992?

 

Ah, and suddenly why the PR guys you speak to switch off rather then passing on your idea

[Theblacksheep]

Umm… ~Points to Sophos~

 

That’s actually a really good idea.

 

Ah, and suddenly why the PR guys you speak to switch off rather then passing on your idea

 

I can choose to use Sophos or not.... I dont!

 

I've had a decent amount of success with SCCM 2012. Something like 60% of laptops done by the start of the school day immediately after the server updated last time round. Still get the usual people that will start up SIMS and leave the error message up (and deny it)... even the ones that delete the IT email before reading it but even pre-patching with new versions that support old would sort them out! It would also stop fire-fighting and take away almost all time constraints from the deployment side.

 

If the PR guys are saying MS are consulted for software solutions, tell them the ini files in the windows root havnt been supported for about 20 years

Edited February 5, 2013 by Theblacksheep

[matt40k]

Well hopefully they'll do something in SOLUS3 that will prevent them opening SIMS whilst it's upgrading, my idea was to replace pulsar.exe with a dummy file - perhaps allow users to customise it you can put something like "read you email you stupid fool" - only with more swears. Still if you could run the newer version with the old database, the “PendingFileRenameOperations” wouldn’t be an issue – unless they never switch their laptop\desktop off… oh wait, they do… (not kidding – had a call about why SIMS didn’t work when the desktop has been in hibernate over the summer holidays!!)

Can’t argue on that one, bit p1ssed off they go off and create add-on modules like InTouch rather fixing the core product just because it makes them a quick bit of money – in the long run it’ll cost them – kinda glad they made Discover a standalone application. Take this example why do they have an old version of NLog and log4net – they do the same ruddy thing, just lazy.

Oh and the sims.ini file – they do like Sage does, the use the workaround approach to keep legacy support – ie you can move it into the application directory (ie c:\program files\sims\sims .net\sims.ini) and it’ll use that.

[Theblacksheep]

Still if you could run the newer version with the old database, the “PendingFileRenameOperations” wouldn’t be an issue – unless they never switch their laptop\desktop off… oh wait, they do… (not kidding – had a call about why SIMS didn’t work when the desktop has been in hibernate over the summer holidays!! Oh and the sims.ini file – they do like Sage does, the use the workaround approach to keep legacy support – ie you can move it into the application directory (ie c:\program files\sims\sims .net\sims.ini) and it’ll use that.

 

Actually had the same hibernate, after about 1/2 hour of being awake (and on the phone at the time) it shortly started rebooting with essential windows patches, then picked up the SCCM SIMS update.

 

FMS does the same, will they change when XP is no longer supported? or do they run longer support for certain paying customers?

[matt40k]

"run longer support for certain paying customers?" - No, we're all treated the same in that respect. If an LA wanted to be prompted and push a new version they might work with them resolve it but it wouldn't be anymore then getting on the UAT list. If it was me, I'd have a pop up that said, hey you need to upgrade as a warning, then 2 releases later force it not to open. They'll continue to overlook the fact you’re on an old version of windows until a major bug appears, most likely when they move to .NET 4.5 or above. So basically we’ll get a few rants about how no-one told there school that they need to move away from over 10 year old operating system in a few release –just basing this on past experience.

 

Sims.ini in FMS folder – think so, but FMS is on par with ONE\EMS (the LA version of SIMS). I try not to think about it. Don’t get me wrong the finance people I’ve spoken to like it, just from a technical point of view it’s written in a programming language that very few people use nowadays and numerous crooked bits stuck together. Which means they have to outsource the coding (as I understand it) for larger changes – don’t get me wrong India has some very talented programmers, but they are very prescriptive. One example was when I had to get a little app code reviewed by one of them and he couldn’t understand why I’ve written an app that read the connect.ini to get the server and database, then prompted for the user\pass when finally running a single stored procedure – he though just asking them to run the stored procedure was enough. It’s the whole silo thing again, Nova-T was great because it was written by a teacher, for a teacher. It’s one of the reasons why large software firms make developers work on the helpdesk for at least 2 weeks when they start – so they understand that simple little change that to them seems completely stupid actually prevents hundreds of calls to the helpdesk.

 

 

Will they change the SIMS.ini? I’d hope, but I’m betting it won’t happen till Sims 8 which will be Azure. On the plus side at least all the Academies having to relicense is meaning FMS is likely to get Azure first – again, all rumor with regards to Azure. SIMS 8 could just be the same thing only more touchy.